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A DEBATE 



UPON THE 



<£|aratta a[ %v&u (tear, 

ADAPTED FROI J. SHERIDAN HOWIES ; 



DESIGNED AS A 



PRACTICAL EXERCISE IN DECLAMATION, 



AND AS A 



MODEL FOR JUVENILE DEBATING CLUBS; 



ALSO 



FOR CLASSES IN PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SCHOOLS. 



Qj OQP\ h ai 



- 



BOSTON 



CROSBY, NICHOLS & COMPANY, 

No. Ill Washington Street. 

18 5 6. 






w 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1853, by 

CROSBY, NICHOLS AND COMPANY, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 



Press of Damrell & Moore, 
16 Devonshire St. 



£><t 035234 



PREFACE 



It may be regarded as one of the encouraging " signs of the 
times," that there is at present an increasing disposition in the 
young to form themselves into associations for moral and intel- 
lectual improvement. This disposition is manifest not only in 
the adult, but among the juvenile portion of the community. 
Hence Juvenile Literary Associations and Debating Clubs are 
becoming " fixed facts," and may be classed among the perma- 
nent institutions of society. Indeed, so common have they 
already become in New England, that hardly a city or a vil- 
lage of any importance can be found without one or more of 
them in successful existence. Whatever name they assume, one 
great object of their formation, doubtless, is the improvement of 
the members in the highly important art of Elocution ; and, 
consequently, an important part of the exercises at their meet- 
ings consists of Declamation and Debate. 

There being, at present, no standard work that can be procured 
as a model for the young Debater, this little volume is offered 
to supply, a3 well as it may^ such a deficiency. It contains a 



4: PREFACE. 

Debate upon the character of Julius Caesar, arranged princi- 
pally from one written by James Sheridan Knowles, as an Elo- 
cutionary Exercise for the use of a class of his own pupils. 
The acknowledged merit of the author as an Elocutionist and 
Dramatic writer, is a sufficient guaranty that it is well adapted 
to the purpose for which it was designed. In fact, it is doubt- 
ful whether the English language can furnish any matter more 
appropriate for the application of the principles of Elocution, or 
better adapted to use as a practical exercise in Declamation. 
The animated style of the composition renders it a highly inter- 
esting and useful form of practice to young speakers ; the more 
so, for obvious reasons, from its being in the form of a Debate. 

As originally prepared by Mr. Knowles, the Debate con- 
sisted of thirteen parts, including that of the Chairman. These 
being, most of them, too long for general use by juvenile classes, 
are here subdivided in such a manner as to comprise, with some 
additions, thirty-one parts, which, it is believed, are so arranged 
as not to weaken the force of the arguments on either side of 
the question. In the subdivision of the various parts in the 
original, a few passages have been omitted, and somo added, 
with the view of adapting it to the purposes of general practice ; 
and, as all the parts in the Debate are thus rendered of an appro- 
priate length for young speakers, this little volume will also be 
found a convenient book from which to make selections for sin- 
gle Declamations. 

It may be stated that the object of arranging this Debate in 
the form here presented, was primarily to furnish an Elocution- 
ary Exercise, and a model of Debate for a Juvenile Association 



PREFACE. 

in the vicinity of Boston. Tho success attending it, as shown 
in the interest manifested by the members, and the apparent 
benefit resulting to them from the occasional use of it, have 
prompted its publication. Another consideration, and one that 
is seldom overlooked in putting a work through the press, namely, 
whether "it will pay," remains an experiment yet to be tried. 
Boston, 1856. 



DIRECTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 

TO YOUNG DEBATERS. 



The Debate comprised in the following pages being designed 
especially as a practical exercise in Elocution and a model 
for Juvenile Debating Clubs, and Associations of a similar 
kind, those who may avail themselves of its use will do well 
to attend to the following suggestions and directions. 

1. It should be the aim of every speaker to make the most 
of the part he may take — to deliver it in such a manner as to 
produce the greatest possible impression upon the hearers ; for 
this, with the benefit resulting to the speaker himself, from his 
careful and earnest effort, is the legitimate purpose of all 
declamation, and especially so when practised in the form of 
debate. It is therefore recommended to each speaker to read 
attentively all the parts, so as to comprehend the tenor of the 
whole Debate ; and in doing this he may often find it necessa- 
ry to consult, not only his common English Dictionary, but some 
Classical work, for the meaning of many of the words. He 
might also read, with much profit, the life of Caesar, or that 
part of the Jiistory of Rome which embraces the times in which 
he lived, and acted a conspicuous part. 

2. Having selected his part in the Debate, he should not 
fail to study it thoroughly, so as not only to understand, but to 
feel the meaning and force of every sentence, phrase, and word 



DIRECTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS. 7 

he is to pronounce. He must also understand the arguments 
of his opponent ; and in replying to them, as well as in present- 
ing his own, he should endeavor to give the language all the 
effect of which it is susceptible, and of which he is capable. 

3. He must of course possess some knowledge of the prin- 
ciples of Elocution, and of the rules which govern pauses, 
tones, emphasis, stress and inflection f for it is only by a correct 
and proper application of these agencies of speech in the utter- 
ance of words, that their full meaning and force can be expressed. 
And when the young speaker is reminded that the frequency 
and duration of the rhetorical pauses, the kind and degree of 
emphasis, and the proper inflection, tone, and stress, must be 
determined and applied by his own judgment and skill, he 
will perceive the necessity of much study, nice discrimination, 
and careful practice. 

4. By a proper adjustment of the rhetorical pauses, and 
strict observance of the grammatical, the speaker may over- 
come one of the most common faults, both in speaking and 
reading, — namely, rapidity. And by proper attention to empha- 
sis and inflection, he will be enabled to correct an other prominent 
fault, which is monotone. The importance of a just application 
of these cannot be too strongly urged upon the young speaker. 
Let him bear in mind that the emphasis of force, which is ex- 
pressed by the falling inflection upon the emphatic word, may 
with propriety be more frequently employed in debate than in 
any other form of discourse, giving much greater effect to the 
words than can be given by " keeping the voice up," as he is 
too apt to do, except at a " full stop," having perhaps been so 
taught. 



8 DIRECTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS. 

Take, for instance, as an example, the following passage from 
the part of the second Debater, and deliver it as marked for 
pauses, emphasis, and inflection — the grave accent ( » ) being 
used to denote the falling inflection — and observe how much 
greater the impression produced must be than possibly could 
be by delivering it in an ordinary monotonous style : — 

■ ■ If I were asked — < What was the first — the second — and 
the last principle — of the virtuous mind ' — I should reply — 
' It was the love — of country.' Sir — it is the love of parent — 
brother — friend! — the love of man ! — the love of honor — 
virtue — and religion! — the love — of every good and virtuous 
deed! — I say, Sir — if I were asked — ' What was the first — 
the second — and the last principle — of the virtuous mind* — 
I should reply — * It was the love — of country ! ' — Without 
it — man — is the basest — of his kind — a selfish — cunning 

— narrow speculator ! — a trader — in the dearest interests — 
of his species ! reckless — of everv tie of nature — sentiment 

— affection ! — a Marius — a Sylla — a Crassus — a Cati- 
line — a Cccsar ! — What, Sir — was Caesar's oratory ? — How 
far — did it prove him — to be actuated — by the love of 
country ? — It justified — for political interest — the invader 

— of his domestic honor! — sheltered the incendiary ! — abetted 
treason! — flattered the people — into their own undoing! — 
assailed the liberties — of his country — and bawled into silence 

— every virtuous patriot — that struggled — to uphold them ! " 

Or, take another example from the part of the seventh De- 
bater : — # 

" By the term liberty — I understand a freedom — from all 
responsibility — except what morality — virtue — and religion 



DIRECTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS. y 

impose. That — is the pnly liberty — which is consonant — 
with the true interest of man — the only liberty — that renders 
his association — with his fellow — permanent — and happy — 
the only liberty — that places him — in a peaceful — honorable 

— and prosperous community — the only liberty — that makes 
him the son of a land — that he would inhabit — till his death 

— and the subject of a state — that he would defend — with 
his property — and his blood! All other liberty — is but a 
counterfeit — the stamp — a cheat — and the metal — base — 
turbulence — insolence — licentiousness — party ferment — 
selfish domination — anarchy — such anarchy — as needed 
more than mortal talents — to restrain it — and found them — 
in a Gcesar! " 

These examples are sufficient to show that the impression a 
speaker would make, must depend entirely upon his skill in the 
employment of these various expressive agencies of speech. It 
is these, properly applied, with a distinct articulation and ap- 
propriate gesture, which combine to form good Elocution. It is 
the skilful use of all these elements, in delivery, which consti- 
tutes a good speaker. 

Finally, it is urged upon those who may be disposed to avail 
themselves of this little work, as a model of debate, and a prac- 
tical exercise in declamation, and who desire to make any ad- 
vancement in the orator's art, to study it carefully, with particu- 
lar reference to the foregoing suggestions, and to pract^e it 
frequently, either wholly or in part, as designated by the Index 
on the following page, remembering that it is by patient study, 
and frequent and careful practice, and by these means only, that 
success can be realized. 

1* 



INDEX 



Showing how the Debate may be arranged for any number of speak- 
ers, from eleven to thirty-one, each taking but one part, and exclud- 
ing that of the presiding officer. 

Arrangement. No. Speakers 

reauired. 

No. 1 first 10 Debaters, with the 30th 11 

30th 13 

30th 15 

23d, 26th and 30th... 17 

19 

26th and 30th 21 

26th and 30th 23 

26th and 30th 25 

30th 27 

last 8 29 

30 



12 
14 
14 
19 
19 
21 
23 
26 
21 



"Whole No. Debaters, 

By including the part of the presiding officer in- each of the above 
arrangements, it will be seen that the Debate may be adapted to any 
number of speakers from 11 to 31 ; and in each the logical connection 
will be well preserved. It may be still further varied. (See Notes at the 
close of different parts.) 

If the presiding officer be the regularly chosen President of an 
Association, or Club, he should be addressed as "Mr. President." 
If appointed merely to preside during the Debate, he should be 
addressed as " Mr. Chairman." He may omit the part designed for 
him, if necessary, simply stating the question for Debate. 



A DEBATE 



UPON THE 



CHAEACTEE OF JULIUS CiESAE. 



First Speaker. 
(President, or Chairman.') 

Gentlemen : — You have assembled to discuss the propriety 
of calling Cassar a great man. I promise myself much satis- 
faction from your debate. I promise myself the pleasure of 
hearing many ingenious arguments on both sides of the ques- 
tion. I promise myself the gratification of witnessing a contest, 
maintained with animation, good humor, and courtesy. 

You are assembled to discuss the merits of a man whose 
actions are connected with some of the most interesting events 
in Roman story. You have given the subject due consideration 
— you come prepared for the contest, and I shall not presume 
to offer any opinion respecting the ground which either side 
ought to take. My remarks shall be confined to the study of 
Elocution, in which important art, it is the object of this hour's 
exercise to afford us an opportunity for useful practice. 

" Elocution is that pronunciation which' is given to words, 
when they are arranged into sentences and form discourse. It 
includes the tones of voice, the utterance, and enunciation of 



12 THE YOUNG DEBATER. 

the speaker, with the proper accompaniments of countenance 
and gesture. The art of Elocution may therefore be defined to 
be, that system of rules which teaches us to pronounce written 
or extemporaneous discourse, with justness, energy, variety, and 
"ease; and good reading and speaking may be considered as 
that species of delivery which not only expresses the sense of 
the words, so as to be barely understood, but at the same time 
gives them all the force, beauty, and variety, of which they are 
susceptible." 

" The Greeks and Romans paid great attention to the study of 
Elocution. They distinguished the different qualities of the 
voice by such terms as hard, soft, smooth, sharp, clear, hoarse, 
full, slender, flowing, flexible, shrill, and rigid. They were 
sensible to the alternations of heavy and light in syllabic utter- 
ance — they knew the time of the voice, and regarded its quan- 
tities in pronunciation — they gave to loud and soft appropriate 
places in speech, and they perceived the existence of pitch, or 
the variation of high and low." It was undoubtedly the per- 
fection to which these distinctions were carried, which gave 
Demosthenes and Cicero such fame as orators, and which in 
later times has produced a Chatham, a Fox, and a Burke — a 
Henry, a Clay, and a Webster. 

Elocution is one of the most important branches of oratory. 
It is one of its chief graces. And oratory is highly useful to 
him who excels in it. In common conversation, observe the 
advantage which the' fluent speaker enjoys over the man that 
hesitates and stumbles in discourse. With half his information, 
he has twice his importance. He commands the respect of his 



CHARACTER OF JULIUS C^SAR. 13 

auditors — he instructs and gratifies them. In the general 
transactions of business, the same superiority attends him. He 
communicates his views with clearness, precision, and effect — 
he carries his point by his mere readiness — he concludes his 
treaty before another kind of man would have well set about 
it. Does he plead the cause of friendship ? — How happy is 
his friend ! Of charity ? — How fortunate is the distressed ! 
Should he enter the legislature of his country, he approves 
himself the people's bulwark ! 

No one can become an orator, without much practice in this 
important art ; and that our present exercise may prove bene- 
ficial to us in this respect, I confidently hope. 

Gentlemen, the question for debate is, — 

WAS CJESAR A GREAT MAN ? 
First Debater. {Affirmative^) 

Sir, — I am unpractised in the orator's art, nor can I boast 
that native energy of talent which asks not the tempering of 
experience, but, by its single force, effects what seems the 
proper achievement of labor and of years. Let me, then, hope 
that you will excel in favor as much as I shall fall short in 
merit. 

Was Caesar a great man ? What revolution, Sir, has taken 
place in the first appointed government of the universe ? — what 
new and opposite principle has begun to direct the operations of 
nature ? — what refutation of their long-established precepts, 
has deprived Reason of her sceptre, and Yirtue of her throne, 



14 THE YOUNG DEBATER. 

that a character which forms the noblest theme that ever merit 
gave to fame, should now become a question for debate ? 

No painter of human excellence, if he would draw the features 
of that hero's character, need study a favorable light, or strik- 
ing attitude. In every posture ifc has majesty, and the linea- 
ments of its beauty are prominent in every point of view. _ Do 
you ask me, " Had Csesar genius ? " — He was an orator ! 
" Had Caesar-judgment?" — He was a politician ! " Had 
Caesar valor?" ■ — He was a conqueror! "Had Caesar feel- 
ing ? " — He was a friend ! 

To you, Sir, who are so fully versed in the page of history, it 
must be unnecessary to recount the military exploits of Caesar. 
Why should I compel your attention to follow him, for the 
hundredth time, though hostile myriads, yielding, at every en- 
counter, to the force of his invincible arms ? Full often, Sir, 
have your calculations hesitated to credit the celerity of his 
marches ; your belief recoiled at the magnitude of his opera- 
tions ; and your wonder re-peruscd the detail of bis successive 
victories, following upon the shouts of one another. ' As a cap- 
tain, he was the first of warriors ; nor w T ere his valor and skill 
more admirable than his abstinence and watchfulness — his 
disregard of ease and his endurance of labor — his moderation 
and his mercy. Perhaps, indeed, this last quality forms the 
most prominent feature in his character ; and proves, by the 
consequences of its excess, that virtue itself requires restraint, 
and has its proper bounds, which it ought not to exceed ; for 
Caesar's moderation was his ruin I 

That Cnesar had a heart susceptible of friendship, and alive 



CHARACTER OF JULIUS CJSSAR. 15 

to the finest touches of humanity, is unquestionable. Why does 
he attempt so often to avert the storm of civil war ? — Why 
does he pause so long upon the brink of the Rubicon ? — Why 
does he weep when he beholds the head of his unfortuate rival ? 
— Why does he delight in pardoning his enemies, even those 
very men that had deserted him? It seems as if he lived the 
lover of mankind, and fell, as the bard expresses it, van- 
quished, not so much by the weapons, as by the ingratitude of 
his murderers. 

If, Sir, a combination of the most splendid talents for war, 
with the most sacred love of peace — - of the most illustrious 
public virtue, with the most endearing private worth — of the 
most unyielding courage, with the most accessible moderation, 
may constitute a great man — that title must be Caesar's. 

Second Debater. (Negative.) 

No change, Sir, has taken place in the first appointed govern- 
ment of the universe-— the operations of Nature acknowledge, 
now, the same principle that they did in the beginning — 
Reason still holds her sceptre, Virtue still fills her throne, and 
the epithet of Great does not belong to Csesar. 

I would lay it down, Sir, as an unquestionable position, that 
the worth of talents is to be estimated only by the use we make 
of them. If we employ them in the cause of virtue, their value 
is great. If we employ them in the cause of vice, they are less 
than worthless — they are pernicious and vile. Now, Sir, let 
us examine Cassar's talents by this principle, and we shall find 



16 THE YOUNG DEBATER. 

that, neither as an orator, nor as a politician — neither as a 
warrior, nor as a friend — was Caesar a great man. 

If I were asked, " What was the first, the second, and the 
last principle of the virtuous rnind ? " I should reply, " It was 
the love of country." Sir, it is the love of parent, brother, 
friend ! — the love of man ! — the love of honor, virtue, and 
religion ! — the love of every good and virtuous deed ! I say, 
Sir, if I were asked, " What was the first, the second, and the last 
principle of the virtuous mind?" I should reply, " It was the 
love of country ! " Without it, man is the basest of his kind ! 

— a selfish, cunning, narrow speculator ! — a trader in the 
dearest interests of his species ! — reckless of every tie of nature 

— sentiment — affection ! — a Marius — a Sylla — a Cras- 
sus — a Cataline — a Ccesar ! What, Sir, was Caesar's ora- 
tory ? — How far did it prove him to be actuated by the love 
of country ? It justified, for political interest, the invader of his 
domestic honor ! — sheltered the incendiary ! — abetted trea- 
son ! — flattered the people into their own undoing ! — assailed 
the liberties of his country, and bawled into silence every vir- 
tuous patriot that struggled to uphold them ! 

That Caesar was a great conqueror I do not care to dispute. 
His admirers are welcome to all the advantages that can result 
from such a position. I will not subtract one victim from the 
hosts that perished for his fame, or abate by a single groan the 
sufferings of his vanquished enemies, from his first great battle 
in Gaul to his last victory under the walls of Munda ; but I will 
avow it to be my opinion, that the charaeterof a great conqueror 
does not necessarily constitute that of a great man ; nor can the 



CHARACTER OF JULIUS CAESAR. 17 

recital of Caesar's many victories produce any other impression 
upon my mind, than what proceeds from the contemplation of 
those convulsions of the earth, which in a moment inundate 
with ruin the plains of fertility and the abodes of peace, or, at 
one shock, convert whole cities into the graves of their living 
population ! 

Third Debater. {Affirmative.') 

Mr. President, — The gentleman asks, " What was Caesar's 
oratory ? " To expatiate upon Caesar's powers of oratory would 
only be to add one poor eulogium to the testimony of the first 
of historians. Cicero himself grants him the palm of preemi- 
nent merit, and seems at a loss for words to express his admi- 
ration of him. His voice was musical, his delivery energetic, 
his language chaste and rich, appropriate and peculiar. And 
it is well presumed, that, had he studied the art of public 
speaking with as much industry as he studied the art of war, he 
would have been the first of orators. Quintilian says, he would 
have been the only man capable of combating Cicero. But, 
granting them to have been equal in ability, what equal contest 
could the timid Cicero, whose nerves fail him, and whose tongue 
falters, when the forum glitters with arms — what equal contest 
could he have held with the man whose vigor chastised the 
Belgse, and annihilated the Nervii, that maintained their ground 
till they were hewn to pieces on the spot ? 

As a politician, how consummate was his address ! — How 
grand his projections ! — How happy the execution of his 



18 THE YOUNG DEBATER. 

measures ! He compels the vanquished Helvetii-to rebuild their 
towns and villages ; making hi3 enemies the guards, as it were, 
of his frontier. He captivates, by his clemency, the Arverni 
and the ^Edui ; winning to the support of his arms the strength 
that had been employed to overpower them. He governs his 
province with such equity and wisdom, as add a milder, but a 
fairer lustre to his glory, and, by their fame, prepare the Roman 
people for his happy yoke. Upon the very eve of his rupture 
with Pompey, he sends back, on demand, the borrowed legions, 
covering with rewards the soldiers that may no longer serve 
him, and whose weapons, on the morrow, may be turned against 
his breast — presenting here a noble example of his respect of 
right, and of that magnanimity which maintains that gratitude 
should not cease, though benefits are discontinued. When he 
reigns sole master of the Roman world, how temperate is his 
triumph ! — how scrupulous his respect for the very forms of the 
laws ! He discountenances the profligacy of the patricians, and 
endeavors to preserve the virtue of the state, by laying whole- 
some restraints upon luxury. He encourages the arts and 
sciences, patronizes genius and talents, respects religion and 
justice, and puts in practice every means that can contribute to 
the welfare, the happiness, and the stability of the empire. 

Fourth Debater. {Negative.) 

Mr. President, — The gentleman says, that, " had Caesar stud- 
ied the art of public speaking with as much industry as he 
studied the art of war, he would have been a greater orator than 



CHARACTER OF JULIUS CJESAR. 19 

Cicero ! " Sir, I question the assertion — I deny that it is 
correct. He would have been a greater orator than Cicero ! 
Well, let it pass — he might have been a greater orator, but 
he never could have been so great a man. Which way soever 
he had directed his talents, the same inordinate ambition would 
have led to the same results ; and, had he devoted himself to 
the study of oratory, his tongue would have produced the same 
effects as his sword, and equally desolated the human kingdom. 
But Csesar is to be admired as a politician ! I will not pre- 
tend to define the worthy speaker's idea of a politician ; but I 
shall attempt, Mr. President, to put you in possession of mine. 
By a politician, I understand a man who studies the laws of 
prudence and of justice, as they are applicable to the wise and 
happy government of a people, and the reciprocal obligations 
of states. Now, Sir, how far was Csesar to be admired as a 
politician ? He makes war upon the innocent Spaniards, that 
his military talents may not suffer from inaction. This was a 
ready way to preserve the peace of his province, and to secure 
its loyalty and affection ! That he may be recorded as the first 
Roman that had ever crossed the Rhine in a hostile manner, 
he invades the unoffending Germans — lays waste their terri- 
tories with fire, and plunders and sacks the country of the Si- 
cambri and the Suevi. Here was a noble policy ! — ■ that planted 
in the minds of a brave and formidable people the fatal seeds 
of that revenge and hatred, which finally assisted in accomplish- 
ing the destruction of the Roman Empire ! In short, Sir, 
Caesar's views were not of that enlarged nature, which could 
entitle him to the name of a great politician ; for he studied not 



20 THE YOUNG DEBATER. 

the happiness and interests of a community, but merely his own 
advancement, which he accomplished — by violating the laws, 
and destroying the liberties of his country. 

Fifth Debater. (Affirmative.) 

It is a generally received opinion, Mr. President, that un- 
common circumstances make uncommon men. Caesar, Sir, was 
an uncommon man in common circumstances. The colossal 
mind commands your admiration, no less in the pirates' captive, 
than in the victor of Pharsalia. Who, but the first of his race, 
could have made vassals of his savage masters ; mocked them 
into reverence of his superior nature, and threatened, with se- 
curity, the power that held him at its mercy ? Of all the 
striking incidents of Caesar's life, had history preserved for us 
but this single one, it would have been sufficient to make us 
fancy all the rest ; at least, we should have said, " Such a man 
was born to conquest, and to«empire ! ? ' 

Caesar's abilities, as a master of composition, were undoubt- 
edly of the first order. How admirable the structure of his 
Commentaries ! what perspicuity in the details ! You fancy 
yourself upon the field of action ! You follow the development 
of his plans with the liveliest curiosity ! You look on with un- 
wearied attention, as he fortifies his camp, or invests his enemy, 
or crosses the impetuous torrent ! You behold his legions, as 
they move forward, from different points, to the line of battle — 
you hear the shout of the onset, and the crash of the encounter ; 
and, breathless with suspense, mark every fluctuation of the 
awful tide of war ! 



CHARACTER OF JULIUS C^SAR. 21 

What, Sir, were the events that characterized the times in 
which Caesar lived ? To what atrocities were the Roman peo- 
ple subject, while the rivalry of their leading men was at liberty 
to create divisions in the state? I need not describe them. 
Had you, Sir, lived in those times, what would you have called 
the man, that would have stepped forward to secure your country 
against a repetition of those horrid scenes ? Would you not 
have styled him a friend to his country — a benefactor to the 
world — a great man — a demigod ? Was not Caesar such a 
character ? Observe what use he makes of his power. He 
does not employ it to gratify revenge, or to awe his country- 
men. On the contrary, the whole of his conduct encourages 
confidence and freedom ; while he reforms the government, and 
enacts the wisest laws for the preservation of order, and for the 
happiness of the community, f They who object to the charac- 
ter of Caesar, condemn it, principally, upon the ground of his 
having erected himself into the sole governor of the republic. 
But let it be remembered, that the happiness of a state does 
not depend so much upon the form of its government, as upon 
the manner in which that government is administered. A coun- 
try might be as prosperous and free, under what was anciently 
called a tyranny, as where the chief power was vested in the 
people. 

Sixth Debater. (Negative,) 

Mr. President, — It has been said that Caesar's munificence 
his clemency, his moderation, and his affectionate nature, con- 



22 THE YOUNG DEBATER. 

stitute him a great man. What was his munificence, his clem- 
ency, or his moderation ? The mere automaton of his ambi- 
tion ! It knew no aspiration from the Deity. It was a thing 
from the hands of a mechanician ! — an ingenious mockery of 
nature ! Its action seemed spontaneous — it3 look argued a 
soul — but all the virtue lay in the finger of the operator. He 
could possess no real munificence, moderation, or clemency, who 
ever expected his gifts to be doubled by return — who never 
abstained, but with a view to excess ; nor spared, but for the 
indulgence of rapacity. 

Of the same nature, Sir, were his affections. He was, indeed, 
a man of exquisite artifice.; but the deformity of his character was 
too prominent. No dress could thoroughly hide it. Nay, Sir, the 
very attempt to conceal served only to discover the magnitude 
of the distortion ! He atones to the violated and murdered 
laws, by doing homage to their manes ; and expiates the mas- 
sacre of thousands, by dropping a tear or two into an ocean of 
blood ! 

I shall not comment upon the circumstance of his having 
been two hundred and fifty thousand pounds in debt, before he ob- 
tained any public office — neither shall I dwell upon his exhibi- 
tion of three hundred and twenty pair of gladiators — his diver- 
sions in the theatre — his processions and entertainments, in 
which, as Plutarch says, he far outshone the most ambitious 
that had gone before him ; and by which he courted the favor of 
the vile, the witless, the sensual, and the venal. I shall not ex- 
patiate upon the share he had in Catiline's conspiracy — nor 
shall I track him in his military career, by pointing out the ruin 



CHARACTER OF JULIUS CiESAR. 23 

which he left behind him at every step. But I will say, that, 
in my opinion, a man guilty of such abominations cannot be justly 
entitled to the epithet of Great. 

Seventh Debater. (Affirmative.) 

Mr. President, — To form an accurate idea of Caesar's char- 
acter, it is necessary that we should consider the nature of the 
times in which he lived ; for the conduct of public men cannot 
be duly estimated, without a knowledge of the circumstances 
under which they have acted. The happiness of a community 
resembles the health of the body. As it is not always the 
same regimen that can preserve, or the same medicine that can 
restore the latter; so the former is not always to be main- 
tained by the same measures, or recovered by the same correc- 
tions. There was a time, Sir, when kingly power had grown 
to so enormous an excess, as rendered its abolition necessary for 
the salvation of the Roman people. Let us examine, whether 
the times in which Cassar lived did not call for and justify the 
measures which he adopted — whether the liberty of the repub- 
lic had not degenerated into such a state of anarchy, as rendered 
it expedient that the power of the empire should be vested in 
one man, whose influence and talents could command party, and 
control faction. 

The erroneous ideas that we have formed concerning Roman 
liberty;, have induced us to pass a severe judgment upon the 
actions of many an illustrious . man. The admirers of that 
liberty will not expect to be told that it was little better than a 



24 THE YOUNG DEBATER. 

name. True liberty, Sir, could never have been enjoyed by a 
people who were the slaves of continual tumults and cabals — 
whose magistrates were the mere echoes of a crowd ; and among 
whom virtue itself had no protection from popular caprice, or 
state intrigue. By the term liberty, I -understand a freedom 
from all responsibility, except what morality, virtue, and reli- 
gion impose. That is the only liberty which is consonant with 
the true interest of man — the only liberty that renders his 
association with his fellow, permanent and happy — the only 
liberty that places him in a peaceful, honorable, and prosperous 
community — the only liberty that makes him the son of a 
land that he would inhabit till his death, and the subject of a 
state that he would defend with his property and his blood ! 
All other liberty is but a counterfeit, the stamp a cheat, and 
the metal base ; turbulence, insolence, licentiousness, party fer- 
ment, selfish domination, anarchy, — such anarchy as needed 
more than mortal talents to restrain it, and found them in a 
Cmsar ! 

Eighth Debater. (Negative). 

Mr. President, — The last speaker has brought forward a 
very curious argument to prove that the Eomans were incapa- 
ble of being a free people, namely, that their magistrates were 
the mere echoes of the people. He adverts, I suppose, to what 
were called the tribunes of the people — officers that acted 
particularly for the plebeian orders, and were generally chosen 
from their body. But these magistrates, or tribunes, were, it 



CHARACTER OF JULIUS C^SAR. 25 

seems, the mere voices of the people ; and that circumstance 
rendered the people incapable of being free ! To me, at least, 
this is a paradox. Who elected these tribunes ? — The people. 
What were they ? — The representatives of the people. Whose 
affairs did they manage ? — The affairs of the people. To whom 
were they responsible ? — To the people. What should they 
have been, then, but the voices, or, as the gentleman has ex- 
pressed it, the echoes of the people ? But this circumstance 
rendered the Roman people incapable of being free ! Did it 
shackle them, to have a control over their tribunes? Did it 
enslave them, to have a voice in their own measures ? Did it 
sell them into bondage, to have the disposal of their own affairs ? 
If it did, I would advise you, Sir, not to meddle with that 
honest man, your steward. Bid him let what farms he pleases ; 
demand what fines he pleases ; fell what timber he pleases ; 
cultivate what lands he pleases ; keep what accounts he pleases ; 
and make what returns he pleases ; lest, by impertinently med- 
dling with your servant, in your own affairs, you rob yourself, 
ruin your estate, become involved in debt, and end your days 
in prison ! 

The admirers of Caesar, and, of course, of that form of gov- 
ernment which was anciently called a tyranny, are extremely 
fond of underrating the character of the Romans, as a free peo- 
ple. Their liberty, they always represent to us as some- 
thing bordering on excess; and, following the idea that ex- 
tremes meet, they describe it as verging into that extreme 
which naturally leads to despotism. But the hypothesis which 
is not borne out by facts, is good for nothing. It was not the 
2 



26 THE YOUNG DEBATER. 

liberty which the plebeians enjoyed, that was the cause of their 
final enslavement. It was the Senate's jealousy of that liberty 
— the Senate's struggle for the control of that liberty — the 
Senate's plunder of that liberty — the Senate's desire to annihilate 
that liberty, which left it in the power of any crafty knave^ 
miscalled a great man, who was sufficiently master of hypocrisy 
and daring, to set his foot on both the Senate and the people, 
and make himself, as Caesar did, the tyrant of his country ! 

Ninth Debater. (Affirmative.) 

Mr. President, — I hold it to be an unquestionable position, 
that they who duly appreciate the blessings of liberty, revolt as 
much from the idea of exercising, as from that of enduring 
oppression. How far this was the case with the Romans, you 
may inquire of those nations that surrounded them. Ask them, 
" "What insolent guard paraded before their gates, and invested 
their strong-holds?" They will answer, "A Roman legionary ! " 
Demand of them, " What greedy extortioner fattened by their 
poverty, and clothed himself by their nakedness ? " They 
will inform you, "A Roman Qusestor ! " Inquire of them, U "What 
imperious stranger issued to them his mandates of imprisonment 
or confiscation, of banishment or death ? " They will reply to 
you, "A Roman Consul ! " Question them, "What haughty 
conqueror led through his city their nobles and kings in chains, 
and exhibited their countrymen, by thousands, in gladiators' 
shows, for the amusement of his fellow citizens?" They will 
tell you, "A Roman General ! " Require of them, " What 



CHARACTER OF JULIUS CJESAR. 27 

tyrants imposed the heaviest yoke, enforced the most rigid 
exactions, inflicted the most savage punishments, and showed 
the greatest gust for blood and torture ? " They will exclaim 
to you, " The Koman people ! " 

Yes, Sir, that people, so jealous of what they called their 
liberties, to gratify an insatiate thirst for conquest, invaded the 
liberties of every other nation ; and on what spot soever they set 
their tyrant foot, the fair and happy soil of the freeman withered 
at their stamp ! But the retributive justice of Heaven ordained 
that their rapacity should be the means of its own punishment. 
As their territories extended, their armies required to be 
enlarged, and their campaigns became protracted. Hence, the 
citizen lost, in the camp, that spirit of independence which he 
had been taught in the city ; and, being long accustomed to 
obey, implicity, the voice of his general, from having been 
sent forth the hope, returned the terror, of his country. Hence, 
Sir, their generals forgot, in foreign parts, the republican 
principles which they had imbibed in the forum ; and, long 
habituated to unlimited command, from being despots abroad, 
learned to be traitors at home. Hence, Sir, Marius returned 
the salutations of his fellow-citizens with the daggers of 
assassins; and, with cool ferocity, marched to the capitol, 
amidst the groans of his butchered countrymen, expiring on 
each side of him ! Hence Sylla's bloody proscription, that 
turned Home into a shambles — that tore its victims from the 
altars of the gods — that made it death for a man to shelter a 
person proscribed, though it were his son, his brother, or his 
father ; and never suffered the executioners to take breath, 



28 THE YOUNG DEBATER. 

till senators, knights, and citizens, to the number of nine thou- 
sand, had been inhumanly murdered ! 

In short, Sir, when Caesar created himself dictator, and there- 
by destroyed, virtually, the republican form of government, he 
usurped no more than the people did, when they erected them- 
selves into a republic, and thereby destroyed the monarchy ; 
and the existing circumstances, which rendered the act of the 
latter expedient, were not more urgent than those which gave 
rise to the conduct of the former. Caesar, Sir, was a great 
man! 

Tenth Debater. (Negative.) 

Caesar, Sir, was not a great man. He who for his own private 
views disobeyed the order of the Senate, from whom he held 
his power — he who seduced from their duty the soldiers, whom 
he commanded in trust for the republic — he who passed the 
Rubicon, though, by that step, he knew he must inundate his 
country with blood — he who plundered the public treasury that 
he might indulge in a selfish and rapacious ambition — he, 
against whom the virtuous Cato ranked himself, whose very 
mercy the virtuous Cato deemed a dishonor to which death was 
preferable, was not a great man. 

" Caesar erected himself into a tyrant that he might prevent 
a repetition of those atrocities which had been committed by 
Marius and Sylla ! " What does the gentleman mean by such 
an assertion ? Caesar pursues the same measures, that Marius 
and Sylla did — why ? To prevent a recurrence of the effects 



CHARACTER OF JULIUS C^SAR. 29 

which those measures produced ! He keeps his eye steadfastly 
upon them, follows them in the same track, treads in their very 
footprints — why ? That he may arrive at a different point of 
destination ! What flimsy arguments are these ! What were 
Marius and Sylla, that Caesar was not ? If they were ambitious, 
was not he ambitious ? If they were treacherous, was not he 
treacherous ? If they rebelled, did not he rebel ? If they 
usurped, did not he usurp ? If they were tyrants, was not he 
a tyrant ? 

You were told that the people, from their long-continued ser- 
vice in the army, gradually lost the spirit of independence, 
and that the calamities of the state arose from that cause. 
Granted. — It follows, then, that a spirit of independence was 
""necessary for the prosperity of the state ; and, consequently, 
that the way to put a stop to its calamities, was to revive that 
spirit. Did Csesar do this ? The gentleman says he had the 
happiness pf his country at heart. From his own argument, 
it follows that this was the way to secure the happiness of his 
country. Did Csesar adopt it ? Was it to revive in his coun- 
trymen the spirit of independence, that he audaciously stepped 
from the rank of their servant, to that of their master ? Was it to 
preserve the integrity which fosters that spirit, that he corrupted 
the virtue of all that came in contact with him, and that he 
dared to tempt ? Was it for the regeneration of the republic, 
that he converted it into a tyranny ? Was it to restore the 
government to its ancient health and soundness, that he, filled 
all the offices of the state with his own creatures, the instruments 
of his usurpation ? Was it to reanimate the people with a 



30 THE YOUNG DEBATER. 

sense of their own dignity, that he called them Bruti and 
Cumcei — that is, beasts and fools, when they applauded 
the tribunes for having stripped his statues of the royal 
diadems with which his flatterers had dressed them ? These 
were the acts of Caesar. Did they tend to restore the ancient 
virtue of the Roman people ? No, Sir ; they tended to anni- 
hilate the chance of its restoration — to sink the people into 
a viler abasement — to rob them of the very names of men ! 
(No. 30 may follow this, and close the Debate.) 

Eleventh Debater. {Affirmative?) 

It is not, Mr. President, my object now to answer the 
arguments which have been so ably brought forward in 
support of the negative of this question. I rise, Sir, to submit 
a few observations upon the nature of the question itself. 
I take the liberty of stating, that I think it an injudiciously 
selected question — a vague and indefinite question — a 
question which does not receive, from every mind, the same 
interpretation. I dare assert, Mr. President, that, in this 
very assembly, there are various opinions, with respect 
to what constitutes a great man. Some will tell you that 
greatness consists in rank — some, in exploits — some, in 
talents — some, in virtue. Thus, Sir, the very premises of 
our discussion are unsettled and wavering; and, from un- 
settled and wavering premises, what can proceed, but indefinite 
and inconclusive arguments ? 

Already do some of the gentlemen on the opposite side en- 



CHARACTER OF JULIUS CtESAR. 31 

cleavor to strain your question to the construction, that greatness 
essentially consists in goodness ; and they may quote Mr. 
Pope, and say, " ' Tis phrase absurd to call a villain great." 
Others, again, may insist that greatness depends upon rank ; 
and exclaim with Milton, " Worthiest, by being good, far more 
than great or high." "Where are we to rest, Sir, upon this 
doubtful basis? — this " neither sea nor good dry land?" 
I confess, Mr. President, that until this point shall have been 
disposed of, I cannot hope for an end to the debate; and, 
therefore, I propose, as an amendment, that previously to the 
farther discussion of the question, we shall determine " what 
it is that constitutes a great man." 

* * 

Twelfth Debater. (Negative.) 

Mr. President, — I object to the amendment, on two grounds ; 
first, because it is indecorous, with regard to you ; secondly, 
because it is uncalled for, with regard to the question. Your 
experience, Sir, could never have allowed you to propose a 
question that required revision ; and had you proposed such 
a question, it would have been our duty to receive it with- 
out comment. The question in point does not require re- 
vision. You do not ask, if Caesar was a great warrior, cr a 
great politician ; but if he was a great man. Surely, Sir, 
in these enlightened times, we do not inquire what it is 
that constitutes a great man. Do we not refuse the name of 
man to him that violates the laws of morality and religion ? 
And if we wish to express that a person is eminently virtuous, 



32 THE YOUNG DEBATER. 

do we not use that name without a single epithet ? To say of 
any one, that he is a man, is to give him credit for the 
noblest endowments of the heart. To say that he is not 
a man, is to leave him destitute of any generous principle. 
The question cannot be viewed in any light but one ; namely, 
as inquiring whether Cassar was a man of great virtues, and 
justifiable conduct. If he was so, our opposition will be 
fruitless ; if he was not so, those gentlemen exert their 
eloquence to little purpose. 

Upon what ground, Sir, are we to acknowledge that Caasar 
was a great man ? For my part, I am at a loss to account for 
the infatuation of those who call him so ; for his chief merit 
seems to have consisted in his talents as a warrior; and 
those talents he certainly employed in a cause that cannot 
be defended upon any principle of morality or religion. What 
species of beings are we, that we laud to the skies those men 
whose names live only in the recollection of a field of car- 
nage, a sacked town, or a stormed citadel ? — that we celebrate, 
at our convivial meetings, the exploits of him, who, in a single 
day, has more than trebled the ordinary havoc of death ? — 
that our wives and daughters weave garlands for the brow, 
whose sweat has cost the groans of widows and of orphans ? — 
and that our very babes are taught to twine the arms of inno- 
cence and purity about the knees that have been used to wade 
in blood ? — I say, what species of beings are we, that we give 
our praise, our admiration, and our love, to that which reason, 
religion, interest, every consideration, should persuade us to 
condemn, to avoid, to abhor ? 



CHARACTER OF JULIUS CESAR. 33 

I do not mean to say, that war ought never to be waged ; 
there are, at times, occasions when it is expedient, necessary, 
justifiable. But who celebrates, with songs of triumph, those 
commotions of the elements that call the awful lightning iuto 
action — that hurl the inundating clouds to earth — and send 
the winds into the deep to rouse its horrors ? These things are 
necessary ; but we hail them not with shouts of exultation ; 
we do not clap our hands as they pass by us ; we do not throng 
in crowds to their processions ; we shudder as we behold them ! 
What species of beings are we ? We turn with disgust from 
the sight of the common executioner, who, in his time, has 
despatched a score or two of victims ; and we press to the 
heels of him, who, in a single day, has been the executioner of 
thousands. 

Let us not call Caesar a great man, because he was a great 
warrior. If we must admire him, let us seek some other war- 
rant for our applause, than what proceeds from the groans and 
writhings of humanity ! 

(No. 30 may follow this, and close the Debate.) 

Thirteenth Debater. (Affirmative.) 

Mr. President, — I solicit your attention. The gentleman 
says, we ought not to rejoice at the triumphs of the warrior ! 
Is this position, Sir, to be received without the least restriction ? 
Let us detect the sophistry of those who support the negative of 
the question. 

2* 



34 THE YOUNG DEBATER. 

A caitiff enters your house at the dead hour of the night, 
prepared for robbery, and grasping the instrument of murder. 
You hear the tread of unknown feet — you rise, come upon the 
intruder, resist him, and lay him prostrate. Shall your wife 
shudder, when you approach to tell her she is safe ? Shall your 
children shrink from you, when you say you have averted the 
danger that threatened their innocent sleep ? Why should they 
not ? I '11 tell you, Sir ; because you have followed the dic- 
tates of reason, of affection, of nature, and of God. Had you 
not been alarmed — notwithstanding this imminent danger — 
had you risen in safety, and had you found the ruffian dead at 
your chamber door, without a mark of violence upon him, his 
ready weapon lying by his hand — had you then called your 
family to behold the spectacle, what would they all have done ? 
Would not some have fallen upon their knees ? Would not oth- 
ers have stood with uplifted hands ? Would not all have been 
transfixed with gratitude, with adoration, that their Almighty 
guard had stretched his arm between them and destruction, and 
marked the limit which the murderer should not pass, without 
the penalty of death ? And is the question changed, because 
you are the instrument of God ? It would be preposterous to 
say so. If, then, your wife, your children, and family, shall 
bless the hand that has been the means of their preservation — 
if they shall weep for gratitude, and press to you on every side, 
rejoicing in the protection of your arm — shall he not hear the 
voice of gratulation, whose skill and valor have saved the lives 
of thousands — have defended cities of matrons and children, not 
from unexpected destruction, but from destruction, again and 



CHARACTER OF JULIUS C^SAR. 35 

again anticipated, approaching before their eyes, and, at every 
step, acquiring additional horror ? Sir, there are warriors 
whose victories should be celebrated with shouts and songs — 
for whose brows our wives and daughters should weave gar- 
lands, and whose knees our infants should embrace ; such war- 
riors as guard the boundaries of their native land ! Though 
they have waded through blood, fair is their aspect ; Religion is 
the motto of their standard, and Mercy glances from their 
sword. And had not Caesar been such a warrior? "Who 
were the enemies over whom he triumphed before his rupture 
with Pompey ? Barbarians, that lived by predatory warfare ! 
The people whose ancestors had once sacked Eome ! — who 
were the restless invaders of the Roman territory, and in one of 
their incursions, annihilated a consular army of a hundred and 
twenty thousand men ! — a nation of robbers ! — ignorant of the 
laws of arms — regardless of leagues and treaties — the blood- 
hounds of havoc — that destroyed for the mere gust of destroy- 
ing. 

Our cause, Sir, may rest upon one single fact : Rome was 
happy, prosperous, and honored, under Cesar's government ; 
and I shall have the hardihood to assert, that he, whose rule 
secures the happiness, prosperity, and glory of a nation, deserves 
to rule it. 

Fourteenth Debater. (Negative.) 

Sir, — If you are not indebted to the gentleman that has 
just addressed you, I am sure the fault is not his. He has 



36 THE YOUNG DEBATER. 

made you a present of a wife, and a fine, thriving family, with 
all the happy et ceteras. Allow me, Sir, to pay my compli- 
ment to you in your new character — allow me to congratu- 
late you upon your having escaped the bachelor's tax — allow 
me to give you joy of a title which becomes your grave de- 
portment, which you wear with a peculiar grace, and which, I 
fervently trust, you will wear long. 

Here, Mr. President, I feel myself tolerably bold ; for I have 
a good cause ; and that is more than half the battle. Sir, it is 
the whole of the battle — it is victory itself ! For though Truth 
should be repulsed a hundred times, she will be triumphant at 
last. Defeated again and again, she returns, unwearied, whole 
and confident, to the charge, because she is immortal. 

" As jsasy may you the in trenchant air 
With your keen sword impress, as make her bleed." 

But this kind of style does not belong to me, Mr. President. 
Unfortunately, I am a fellow so given to jesting, that I am 
always thought to be most in jest, when I appear to be serious. 
Therefore, Sir, I must talk to you in my own way — catching 
at the ideas just as they present themselves ; and giving them 
to you without examination, or order, or system, or anything 
else that bespeaks a man of a sedate habit of thinking — con- 
fiding everything, as I said before, to the goodness of my 
cause. 

And first of all, Sir, I have not the least idea of calling a 
man great, because he has been a great conqueror ! I do not 
like what are called your great conquerors ! — your gentlemen 



CHARACTER OF JULIUS CAESAR. 37 

that have slain their tens of thousands, and fought more battles 
than they are years old ! I care not in what cause they may 
have been engaged — that is the last consideration ; for the 
very best cause may be entrusted to the very worst man — that 
is, with respect to morals, principles, &c. It is not virtue that 
is requisite to form such characters ; it is the contempt of 
death, enterprise, cunning, skill, resolution ; and these may 
be found in a man who does not possess one single recom- 
mendation besides. How many a renowned general has turned 
his arms against the very cause in whose defence he first took 
them up, as Caesar did ! — Caesar, who was commissioned by his 
country to subdue the Gauls, and then commissioned himself to 
subdue his country ! I wonder that any man, who has a re- 
gard for common sense, or plain honesty, can so far forget him- 
self as to justify Caesar's conduct in this particular. I shall 
state a very simple case to you, Mr. President. You have a 
very large estate ; you employ a couple of stewards to assist you 
in the management of it ; and you send one of them to reside 
in the most distant part of it. Well, Sir, this steward is a fel- 
low of address ; he manages his.little government very skilful- 
ly — keeps your tenants in due subjection, and your servants in 
admirable order — at the same time, taking care to secure him- 
self in their good graces, by indulgences, and gifts, and flatter- 
ies, and every effective means of engaging esteem. Well, Sir, 
in process of time you determine to dismiss this steward ; but 
you retain the other ; you recall him, that he may give an ac- 
count of himself, and receive his discharge. Does he obey you ? 
No ; he does not stir a step! He sets his arm# akimbo, and 



38 THE YOUNG DEBATER. 

thus accosts your messenger : " Mr. Jack — (or Thomas — or 
William — or Walter) — present my duty to my master, and say 
that when steward Such-a-one receives his discharge, I '11 accept 
mine." I should like to see your face, Mr. President, upon 
your receiving this message. I need not follow the supposition 
farther. You would do what you could — what you would 
have a right to do. You would have him fined, imprisoned, 
hanged. And yet, Sir, such a man, though acting upon a 
larger scale, wa3 the immortal Caesar ! It makes one sick to 
hear the cause of such a man advocated. And let me recall to 
the recollection of those gentlemen, the truth, that greatness 
cannot consist in anything that is at the disposal of chance ; or, 
rather, that exists by chance. Had not fortune favored Caesar, 
in his first battles, he would have been recalled ; perhaps 
brought to trial, and banished ; and then he would have been 
little Caesar. 

(The Debate may close by adding No. 30, or Nos. 23, 26, 
and 30.) 

Fifteenth Debater. (Negative.) 

Mr. President, — In the name of common sense, what mighty 
acts did Caesar perform, when he became the master of his coun- 
try ? We are told that the servile Senate created him reformer 
of manners ! A fine reformer of manners, whose own manners 
stood so much in need of reforming ! Sir, they should have rather 
made liim inspector of markets ; for it was in that capacity that 



CHARACTER OF JULIUS CJESAR. 39 

he shone the most conspicuously. It is said he limited the ex- 
pense of feasts ; and that his officers used to enter the houses of 
the citizens, and snatch from off their tables any meats that 
were served up contrary to his prohibition ! I should like to 
see a constable enter my parlor at dinner time, and hand away 
a dish just as it had been placed upon the table ! But the best 
of it is, his restrictions affected certain orders only. Men of 
rank might do as they pleased. They might have their litters, 
and their embroidered robes, and their jewels — ay ! and, I dare 
say, their dishes, — without limit of number, or of quality, or 
of variety. Give me no great Caesar, for the governor of my 
country. Give me such government as leaves the management 
of a man's table to himself. Give me such cities as have markets 
without informers; where a cook may ride in a carriage 
as fine as his own gilt and figured pastry ; and a pinmaker may 
set you down to as many different dishes, if he can get them, 
as there are minikins in a row. 

In fine, Mr. President, my opinion of Caesar is this : He was 
a very fine fighter, a very bad patriot, a very selfish master, and 
a very great rogue ! 

Sixteenth Debater. (Affirmative.) 

I shall attempt, Mr. President, to reply to the last two 
gentlemen, who both spoke upon the negative of this question ; 
and though I may not succeed in " killing two birds with one 
stone," I may be able to bring them down a round or two, upon 
the ladder of ambition, on which they so proudly perch. 



40 THE YOUNG DEBATER. 

If my worthy colleague presented you with a wife and family, 
the next speaker was not behindhand with him ; for he gave 
you a very large estate to maintain them with — an estate so 
large as to require two stewards to manage it. 

As to that gentleman's eloquence in opposition to Caesar's 
greatness, he himself tells you what degree of importance you 
are to attach to his opinions ; for he very ingenuously says you 
are not to expect any thing serious from him ; but that you 
must accept of undigested ideas and rash conclusions, in the 
place of sober reflection and logical reasoning. His arguments, 
therefore, pass for nothing ; and do not add to the strength of 
his cause, or subtract from that of ours. As, therefore, I shall 
not be expected to consume time in examining that gentleman's 
undigested ideas and rash conclusions, I will only prescribe for 
his sickness ; for it will be remembered that he said it made 
him sick to hear the cause of such a man as Caesar advocated. 
My prescription is this, — Let him take a dose of common sense 
and use a little mental exercise ; that will remove his sickness. 
Now, Sir, leaving that gentleman to the operation of his 
medicine, I shall proceed to comment, briefly, upon the remarks 
of the last speaker respecting the restraints that Caesar laid 
upon luxury. A man, Sir, should not be over frivolous, even 
in his jesting. Surely, the gentleman cannot have been so great 
a victim to his mirth, as to have laughed away the entire fruit 
of his academical labors! Surely, he cannot have forgotten 
that Caesar had proud authority for the policy he pursued in the - 
respect alluded to ! Surely, he remembers a few of the laws of 
Lycurgus, particularly that which prescribed the diet of the 



CHARACTER OF JULIUS CAESAR. 41 

Spartans, and enjoined all ranks to eat, without distinction, in one 
common hall, where the simplest repast was provided ! Surely, 
I need not remind him that the heroes of Greece fared upon 
black broth, and drew their glory no less from the moderation 
of their appetite, than from the excess of their courage and 
patriotism. 

Caesar, Sir, was a man of stupendous loftiness of mind ! A 
man above all influence of fortune ! himself, where other men 
would have been — nothing ! Observe him when he is sur- 
prised by the Nervii. His soldiers are employed in pitching 
their camps. The ferocious enemy sallies from his conceal- 
ment, puts the Eoman cavalry to rout, and falls upon the foot. 
Everything is alarm — confusion — disorder ! Every one is 
doubtful what course to take, — every one but Caesar ! He 
causes the banner to be erected, the charge to be sounded, 
the soldiers at a distance to be recalled — all in a moment ! 
He runs from place to place — his whole frame is in action — 
his words, his looks, his motions, his gestures, exhort his men 
to remember their former valor ! He draws them up, and 
causes the signal to be given — all in a moment ! The contest 
is doubtful and dreadful ! Two of his legions are entirely sur- 
rounded ! He seizes a buckler from one of the private men -— 
puts himself at the head of his broken troops — darts into the 
thickest of the fight — rescues his legions, and overthrows the 
enemy ! 

But, if you would contemplate Caesar in a situation where 
he is peculiarly himself, observe him attempting to cross the 
sea in a fishing-bark. A storm arises ; the winds and waves 



42 THE YOUNG DEBATER. 

oppose his course ; the rowers, in despair, desist from their 
labor. Caesar, from the time he had entered the boat, had sat 
in silence, habited in the disguise of a slave, unknown to the 
sailors or the pilot. Like a genius who could command the 
elements, he stands before the master of the vessel in his proper 
shape, and cries, "Goon boldly, my friend, and fear nothing. 
Thou carriest Gcesar and his fortunes along with thee ! " 

Really, Sir, I cannot command my patience, when I hear 
those gentlemen indulge in invectives against a man, the twen- 
tieth part of whose excellence, divided amongst the whole of 
them, would make them heroes ! 

I shall certainly vote for the affirmative of the question. 

(The Debate may close here, or Nos. 26 and 30 may be 
added.) 

Seventeenth Debater. (Negative.) 

I regret, Mr. President, that I must dissent from the last 
speaker, with regard to his admiration of Caesar. I cannot, I 
confess, behold those incidents he has just named, in Caesar's 
life, in the same light that he does. When Caesar was sur- 
prised by the Nervii, he had a great cause at stake ; and his 
conduct, on that occasion, was the natural result of that consid- 
eration. That consideration made him collected, and gave him 
coolness to employ the readiest means of extricating himself 
from the danger that threatened him. Besides, he was no raw 
commander ; he had subdued the Helvetians, the Germans, and 



CHARACTER OF JULIUS C^SAR. 43 

the Belgians ; nor was his rescuing the two legions, that were 
surrounded by the enemy, so wonderful an exploit. He was 
joined, at that critical moment, by the force that he had left to 
guard his baggage ; nor was his success more the consequence 
of his courage in leading his men into the thickest of the fight, 
than of the enthusiasm of his soldiers, who followed their 
general, and whose dearest honor was then most particularly con- 
cerned in his safety. 

Csesar, an ambitious general, attempted to cross the sea in a 
fishing-bark ! Why, Sir, a lover once swam across the Helles- 
pont ! Cesar's fortunes and life were at stake ! He had but 
a handful of men with him, and Antony was loitering, as he 
supposed, near Brandusium. Leander had his mistress at stake ! 
I will not, Mr. President, trespass any longer upon your 
patience. I am sure that you will agree with me, that great 
exploits must have noble ends ; and then, indeed, they make 
the executor great. 

"Who wickedly is wise, or madly brave, 
Is but the more a fool, the more a knave. 
"Who noble ends by noble means obtains, 
Or, failing, smiles in exile or in chains ; 
Like good Aurelius let him sigh, or bleed 
Like Socrates, ■ — that man is great indeed." 

(No. 30 may follow this, and close the Debate.) 



44 THE YOUNG DEBATER. 



Eighteenth Debater. (Negative.) 

Mr. President, — I ask your attention to a few remarks upon 
the negative of this question. I contend, Sir, that in esti- 
mating character, we should take into the account, goodness, 
virtue, morality. Do we find these prominent in Caesar's life ? 
Let us first examine his youth ; and here we are struck with his 
notable adventure with the pirates. These freebooters took him 
as he was sailing to Rhodes. They asked twenty talents for his 
ransom ; and in derision of their moderation, he promised them 
fifty, — the onus of which act of liberality was borne by the 
honest Milesians, who raised the money by a voluntary tas. 
He spent thirty-eight days with those pirates ; joined in their 
diversions ; took his exercises among them j wrote poems and 
orations, which he rehearsed to them, and which, indeed, pirates 
as they were, they did not admire ; and, in short, lived among 
them with as much security, ease, and honor, as if he had 
been in Rome. And what was the sequel ? His ransom arrives ; 
they keep their compact — set him at liberty. He departs ; ar- 
rives at Miletus — mans some vessels in the port of that place ; 
returns — attacks these same pirates — takes the greater number 
of them prisoners, and crucifies them, to a man ! 

"Was this a great act in Caesar? True, he had promised 
to do so, when they showed no great relish for the songs and 
speeches he had written among them; but should he have 
kept his promise ? True, they were a banditti, — they had 
deprived him of his liberty j but he had eaten at their board ; 



CHARACTER OF JULIUS CAESAR. 45 

he had partaken of their diversions ; he had slept among them 
in sacred security; he had railed at them without retort; 
threatened them, and only excited delight at his freedoms. 
Should he, Mr. President, have crucified them — crucified them, 
to a man ? Was there not one, at least, he might have spared ; 
one bluff face, whose humor and confidence had pleased him 
above the rest? — one hand, whose blunt officiousness he more 
particularly remembered ? What ! Sir, do we admire the attach- 
ment which a wild beast displays towards its attentive keeper, 
— do we applaud that sacred and generous principle of nature, 
which allows kindness to obliterate the sense of injury, — and 
shall we give our sanction, praise, and admiration, to this exploit 
of Caesar's? 

What do we find him next about ? He produces the images 
of Marius, — that man, who, as. my worthy friend has said, re- 
turned the salutations of iris fellow-citizens with the blows of 
his assassins, and marched to the capitol, amidst the groans of 
his butchered countrymen, expiring on each side of him ! This 
was not following in the footsteps of Marius ; it was justifying 
them ; it was expatiating upon them, in the language of vene- 
ration and triumph ! It was inviting to the standard of his 
ambition, every recreant that would sell the vigor of his arm to 
any cause, no matter how bloody, how unnatural, how immoral, 
how sacrilegious ! 



46 THE YOUNG DEBATER. 

Nineteenth Debater. (Affirmative.} 

Mr. President, — Is Caesar to be condemned because he 
produced the images of Marius, and revived his memory and 
honors ? Sir, I conceive a weaker ground of accusation could 
not have been selected ; for the mere circumstance of Marius 
having been related to Caesar, by marriage, presents a very 
natural excuse for such a proceeding, particularly as it took 
place upon the death of Caesar's aunt, who was the wife of 
Marius. I fear the worthy gentleman does not follow Bacon's 
recommendation, and chew and digest the nutritious food which 
historical reading presents to the mind ; otherwise, he must 
have perceived that Caesar's conduct on this occasion not only 
admitted of excuse, but even challenged commendation. Let 
him return to the page which he has examined, I fear, too 
superficially, and he will find that, up to that time, several of 
Sylla's partisans, — partisans in his murders, — remained in 
Rome ; lived there in peace, in safety, perhaps in power. He 
will find the general assertion, that Caesar's conduct, in having 
revived the memory of Marius, incensed the nobility ; and the 
particular assertion, that Catulus accused him before the Senate. 
This Catulus had been the distinguished friend of Sylla ; had 
been raised by Sylla to the consulship ; and, at Sylla's death, 
had preserved his remains from the deserved dishonor of 
an ignominious burial; had procured him the most magnifi- 
cent funeral that had ever been seen in Rome, and caused the 
Vestals of Pontifices to sing hymns in praise of the man, who, 



CHARACTER OF JULIUS CjESAR. 47 

as it has been justly said, converted Rome into a shambles with 
his butcheries ! He will find that Caesar answered the invec- 
tives of Catulus, and was acquitted with high applause ; and 
that he, thereupon, attacked the remaining partisans of Sylla, 
brought them to trial, and, having convicted such as had im- 
brued their hands in the blood of their fellow citizens, caused 
them to be condemned to death, or to perpetual banishment. 

Let us, Sir, do justice to the dead, though their interests be 
parted from ours by the lapse of a hundred generations ; and, 
as this noble act of Csesar's followed the revival of his uncle's 
honors, let us believe that he revived his uncle's honors for 
the purpose of performing this noble act ; that the memory of 
Sylla's enemy, being opposed to the memory of Sylla, might 
deprive it of that power which gave impunity to murder, and 
guarded sacrilege from vengeance. 

(The Debate may close here, or Nos. 26 and 30 may be 
added.) 

Twentieth Debater, (Negative.) 

Mr. President, — It is not my purpose to occupy much of 
your time in this debate. I rise simply to reply to those gentle- 
men, who argue that Cassar usurped the supreme power for the 
public good ; and I shall do it, Sir, by examining the characters 
of the men who abetted him. 

Were your country, Sir, in a state of anarchy — were it dis- 
tracted by the struggles of rival parties, drawn out, every now 



48 THE YOUNG DEBATER. 

and then, in arms against one another ; and were you, Sir, to 
attempt a reformation of manners, what qualifications would you 
require in the men whom you would associate with you in 
such an undertaking ? What would content you ? Talent ? 
— No ! Enterprise ? — No ! Courage ? — No ! Eeputation ? 
No ! Virtue ? — No ! The men whom you would select, should 
possess, not one, but all of these. Nor, yet, would that content 
you. They must be proved men ; tested men ; men that had* 
again and again passed through the ordeal of human tempta- 
tion, without a scar, without a blemish, without a speck. You 
would not inquire out the man who was oppressed with debts 
contracted by licentiousness, debauchery, every species of pro- 
fligacy. Who, Sir, I ask, were Caesar's seconds in his under- 
taking ? Crebonius Curio, one of the most vicious and debauched 
young men in Home ; a creature of Pompey's, bought off by 
the illustrious Caesar ! Marcus Antonius, a creature of that 
creature's ; a young man so addicted to every kind of dissipa- 
tion, that he had been driven from the paternal roof — ■ the 
friend and coadjutor of that Clodius, who violated the myste- 
ries of the Bona Dea, and drove into exile the man that had 
been called the father of his country ! Paulus Emilius, a patri- 
cian, a consul, a friend of Pompey's — bought off by the great 
Caesar, with a bribe of fifteen hundred talents ! Such, Sir, 
were the abettors of Caesar ! What, then, what was Caesar's 
object? Do we select extortioners to enforce the laws of 
equity ? Do we make choice of profligates to guard the morals 
of society ? Do we depute atheists to preside over the rites 
of religion ? What, I say, was Caesar's object ? I will not press 



CHARACTER OF JULIUS CiESAR. 49 

the answer ; I need.not press the answer ; the premises of my 
argument render it unnecessary. The achievement of great 
objects does not belong to the vile; or of virtuous ones, to the 
vicious; or of religious ones, to the profane, tear did not 
associate such characters with him, for the good of his country. 
His object was the gratification of his own ambuwn - the at- 
tainment of supreme power, no matter by what means accom- 
plished, no matter by what consequences attended. He aspired 
to be the highest - above the people ! above the authont.es. 
above the laws ! above his country ! - and in that seat of emi- 
nence he was content to sit, though, from the centre to the far 
horizon of his power, his eyes could contemplate nothing but 
the ruin and desolation by which he had reached it ! 

Twenty-first Debater. (Affirmative.) 

Mr President, - As to the assertion of the last speater, that 
Cesar's aims may be ascertained by examining the characters 
of those associated with him, it must go for nothing. The gen- 
tleman must recollect that those very men had been the abet- 
tors of Pompey; had been employed by Pompey-ay. and 
with the sanction of the Senate - in carrying on those measures 
which he had adopted against Caesar! 

A gentleman, in the early part of this debate, alluded to the 
cireumstanee of Ceesar's having been in debt to a large amount 
before he obtained any public office. He said he should not 
comment upon it. Sir, I shall comment upon it so far as to 
loform that gentleman, if he has not learned it from history, 
3 



50 THE YOUNG DEBATER. 

that, upon his return from Spain, Caesar paid those debts, to 
the last farthing. Was not that an honorable act ? 

Another very curious attack has been made upon the charac- 
ter of Caesar ; namely, that he put a few pirates to death. I 
question if the worthy gentleman understands what a pirate of 
those times signified. Probably he conceives him to have been 
a rough, honest, free, merry kind of fellow, that loved a roving 
life, and indulged himself, only now and then, in a little harm- 
less plunder. He will not expect to be told, that he was a 
man enrolled in a formidable band — possessing, at times, a 
fleet of a thousand galleys — making frequent descents upon the 
Italian coasts ; plundering villas, temples, and even towns ! — ■ 
carrying off consuls and their lictors ! — tearing virgins from 
the arms of their aged parents ! — murdering in cool blood the 
prisoners whom they had taken, particularly Romans — and 
spreading such terror over the seas, that no merchant vessel 
dared to put out of port, and large districts of the empire were 
threatened with famine ! Surely, the gentleman must be igno- 
rant of these facts ; otherwise, he would not have chosen so un- 
tenable a position for attack. As to Caesar's forgetting that 
the pirate had been his host, it might, indeed, have been some 
ground for animadversion, had he ever remembered that he was 
so. Some gentlemen, truly, may be so much in love with hospi- 
tality, as to admire it, though forced upon them with handcuffs 
and fetters ! and may have so curious a taste for visiting, as never 
to go abroad, except upon the requisition of a bailiff! or value 
an entertainment, unless the host turns the key upon them, and 
feasts them in a dungeon, with walls a yard thick, and windows 



CHARACTER OF JULIUS CAESAR. 51 

double-barred ! But, as such fancies cannot be called common, 
Caesar, I think, may escape censure for not having indulged 
in them. 

(The debate may close here, or Nos. 26 and 30 may be 
addecl, or the last five may be added.J 



Twenty- Second Debater. (Negative.) 

Mr. President, — A gentleman has said, that the man whose 
rule secures the happiness, prosperity and glory of a nation, 
deserves to rule it With equal confidence I assert, that the 
man who obtains the rule of his country, by violating its laws, 
how much soever ho may contribute to make it happy, pros- 
perous and great, does not deserve to rule it. He sets a bad 
example — an example the more pernicious, as his virtues 
seem to palliate the atrocity of his usurpation. He leaves it 
in the power of any wretch, who may possess his ambition, 
without his excellence, to quote his name, and use it as an au- 
thority for committing a similar crime. 

No gentleman has yet presumed to say that Caesar's conduct 
was sanctioned by the laws of Rome — those laws that guarded 
more cautiously against the approaches of tyranny, than against 
the invasion of a foreign enemy — ■ those laws that justify any 
private man, in putting to death the person whom he could 
afterwards prove to have been guilty of meditating usurpation. 
Caesar, then, did not deserve to rule his country ; for he violated 
its laws. A good man respects the laws of his country ; Caesar 



52 THE YOUNG DEBATER. 

was not, in this view, a good man — Caesar was not, in this 
view, a great man ; for goodness is an essential part of great- 



Let us now examine how far Caesar deserved to rule his 
country, because, as it has been said, he secured its happiness, 
prosperity, and greatness. Sir, I do not believe he accom- 
plished any such object. To dispose of all offices and honors, 
just as his own interest or fancy directed his choice of the can- 
didates ; to create new offices, for the gratification of his favor- 
ites and creatures — making the public property the recompense 
of public delinquency ; to degrade the venerable Senate, by intro- 
ducing into it persons whose only claim to that dignity was 
their servile devotion to his interests — common soldiers, the 
sons of freedmen, foreigners, and so forth — I say, Sir, to adopt 
such measures as these, had not a tendency to secure the happi - 
ness or prosperity of his country. But, upon what ground does 
the gentleman assert that Caesar secured the greatness of his 
country? Was it by extending the fame of its arms? There 
was another kind of fame, which the Roman people valued more 
than the fame of its arms — the fame of their liberty ! There 
was another kind of greatness, dearer to their pride than all 
the wealth or honor that could result from foreign victory — 
that kind of greatness which gloried not in the establishing, 
but in the destroying of tyranny • which drove a Tarquin from 
the throne, and cast an Appius into prison ; which called their 
proudest heroes from heads of armies, and the rule of conquered 
nations into the equal ranks of private citizens. 

(No. 30 may follow this, and close the Debate^) 



CHARACTER OF JULIUS CAESAR. 53 

Twenty-third Debater. (Affirmative.) 

Mr. President, — Gentlemen upon the opposite side of the 
question talk very prettily about the criminality of usurpation. 
They know it is a popular theme. All men are tenacious of 
their property ; and the gentlemen think that, if they can carry 
the feelings of their auditors along with them, in this respeet, 
they may be certain of success in every other. We have not 
any objection to their flattering themselves with such fancies ; 
but the cause of justice shall not be sacrificed to their gratifica- 
tion. Surely, those gentlemen must be ignorant of the state of 
the republic in those times. Surely, they have never heard or 
read that massacre was the common attendant of public elec- 
tions; that the candidates brought .their money, openly, to the 
place of election, and distributed it among the heads of the 
different factions ; that those factions employed force and vio- 
lence in favor of the persons who paid them ; and that scarce 
any office was disposed of, without being disputed, sword in 
hand, and without costing the lives of many citizens ! 

A gentleman very justly said, that the love of country was 
the first, the second, and the last principle of the virtuous mind. 
Now, Sir, it appears that the Roman people sold their 
country — its offices, its honors, its liberty ! sold them to the 
highest bidder, as they would soil their wares — a sheep, or 
the quarter of an ox ! — and that, after they had struck the bar- 
gain, they threw themselves into it, and fought manfully for the 
purchaser ! Cicero and Cato lived in those times — Cicero, that 
saved Rome from the conspiracy of Cataline — Cato, who would 



54 THE YOUNG debater. 

not survive the liberty of his country. The latter attempted to 
stop the progress of the corruption ; but his efforts were fruit- 
less. He could neither restrain its progress, nor mitigate its 
virulence. Thus, Sir, the independence of the republic was 
virtually lost before Caesar became a usurper ; and, therefore, to 
say that Caesar destroyed the independence or liberty of his 
country, is to assert that he destroyed a nonentity ! 

Here, Sir, I leave the question. 

(The Debate may be closed here, or Nos. 26 and 30, or the 
last five may be added) 

Twenty-fourth Debater. (Negative) 

Mr. President, — It has been observed, "How often did 
Caesar attempt a reconciliation with Pompey, and offer terms of 
accommodation ! " I shall endeavor, Sir, to answer that point. 
Would gentlemen pass tricks upon us, for honest actions ? 
Examine the fact. Caesar keeps his army on foot because 
Pompey does so. What entitles either of them to keep his 
army on foot? The commission of his country. By that 
authority they levied their armies — by that authority they 
should disband them. Had Caesar that authority to keep his 
army on foot ? — No. Had Pompey ? — Yes. What right, 
then, had Caesar to keep his army on foot because Pompey 
did so ? His army ! It was the army of his country — enrolled 
by the orders of his country — maintained by the treasure 
of his country — fighting under the banners of his country — 



CHARACTER OF JULIUS CAESAR. 55 

seduced by his flatteries, his calumnies, and his bribes, to espouse 
the fortunes of a traitor ! Sir, he never sincerely sought a re- 
conciliation. Had he wished to accomplish such an object, he 
would have adopted such measures as were likely to obtain it. 
He would have obeyed the order of the Senate ; disbanded 
his troops ; laid down his command, and appeared in Rome a 
private citizen. Such conduct would have procured him more 
dignity, more fame, more glory, than a thousand sceptres ; he 
would not have come to parley with the trumpet and the stand- 
ard, the spear and the buckler ; he would have proved himself 
to have been great in virtue. 

But, Sir, if you would form a just estimate of Caesar's aims, 
look to his triumphs after the surrender of Utica — Utica, more 
honored in being the grave of Cato, than Rome in having 
been the cradle of Caesar. 

You will read, Sir, that Caesar triumphed four times : first, 
for his victory over the Gauls ; secondly, over Egypt ; thirdly, 
over Pharnaces ; lastly over Juba, the friend of Cato. His 
first, second, and third triumphs were, we are told, magnifi- 
cent. Before him marched the princes and noble foreigners of 
the countries he had conquered ; his soldiers, crowned with 
laurels, followed him, and the whole city attended with 
acclamations. This was well ; the conqueror should be hon- 
ored. His fourth triumph approaches — as magnificent as 
the former ones. It does not want its royal captive, its 
soldiers, crowned with laurels, or its flushed conqueror, to grace 
it ; nor is it less honored by the multitude of its spectators ; but 
they send up no shouts of exultation ; they heave loud sighs ; 



56 THE YOUNG DEBATER. 

their cheeks- are frequently wiped ; their eyes are fixed upon 
one object, that engrosses all their senses, their thoughts, 
their affections. It is the statue of Cato, carried before the 
victor's chariot ! It represents him rending open his wound, 
and tearing out his bowels, as he did in Utica when Roman 
liberty was no more ! Now, ask if Caesar's aim was the wel- 
fare of his country ! Now, doubt if he was a man governed 
by a selfish ambition ! Now, question whether he usurped for 
the mere sake of usurping ! He is not content to triumph over 
the Gauls, the Egyptians, and Pharnaces; he must triumph 
over his own countrymen ! He is not content to cause the 
statues of Scipio and Petreius to be carried before him ; he must 
be graced by that of Cato ! He is not content with the simple 
emgy of Cato ; he must exhibit that of his suicide ! He is 
not satisfied to insult the Romans with triumphing over the 
death of liberty ; they must gaze upon the representation of her 
expiring agonies, and mark the writhings of her last fatal 
struggle ! 

(No 30 may follow, and close.) 

Twenty-fifth Debater. (Affirmative.) 

Mr. President, — It has been happily remarked in the course 
of this debate, that the power of interfering with the tribunes 
was fatal to the Roman people. Yes, Sir, it was fatal. The 
tribunes ought to have been independent of the people, from 
the moment of their entering on their office, to that of their 
laying it down. You were told the people had a right to the 



CHARACTER OF JULIUS CJESAR. 57 

direction of their own affairs. Yes, Sir, they had a right, — we 
do not dispute that ; but it was a right, by the abandonment 
of which they would have been gainers. It was a fatal right, 
by grasping at which they lost every thing. It was an incon- 
sistent right ; for they stood as much in need of being protect- 
ed from themselves, as of being protected from the nobility. 
Why does a man put his affairs into the hands of another, but 
because he cannot manage them so well himself? If he cannot 
manage them so well himself, why should he interfere with the 
person to whose conduct he entrusts them ? Because he has a 
right ! I know he has ; but it is an unfortunate right, for it 
leaves it in his power to ruin himself, in spite of good counsel 
and friendship. 

Gentlemen talk, Sir, of what are called the people, as if they 
were the most enlightened part of the community. Are they the 
guardians of learning ? — or of the arts ? — or of the sciences ? Do 
we select counsellors from them ? — or judges ? — or legislators ? 
Do we inquire among them for rhetoricians ? — logicians ? — or 
philosophers ? — or rather, do we not consider them as little culti- 
vated in mind ? — little regulated by judgment ? — much in- 
fluenced by prejudice ? — greatly subject to caprice ? — chiefly 
governed by passion ? Of course, Sir, I speak of what are 
generally called the people — the crowd — the mass of the com- 
munity. But you ask me for a proof of the bad effects that 
resulted to the Roman people, from the liberty they possessed 
of legislating directly for themselves. Look, Sir, to the pro- 
ceedings of the forum ! What they did, they undid ; what they 
erected, they threw down ; they enacted laws, and they repealed 
3* 



58 THE YOUNG DEBATER. 

them; they elected patriots, and they betrayed them; they 
humbled tyrants, and they exalted them. You will find that 
the great converted the undue power which the people pos- 
sessed, into the means of subjugating the people. If they feared 
a popular leader, it was only necessary to spread, by their emis- 
saries, a suspicion of his integrity, or set the engine of corrup- 
tion to work upon the frailest of all fortifications, popular stabil- 
ity ; and thus, Sir, they carried their point, humbled their hon- 
est adversaries, and laughed in the face of the wisest and most 
salutary laws ! 

Twenty-Sixth Debater. (Negative.) 

Mr. President, — A gentleman, speaking of Caesar's be- 
nevolent disposition, and of the reluctance with which he 
entered into the civil war, observes, " How long did he pause 
upon the brink of the Rubicon ? " Sir, how came he to the 
brink of that river ? How dared he cross it ? Shall private 
men respect the boundaries of private property, and shall a 
man pay no respect to the boundaries of his country's rights ? 
How dared he cross that river? Oh ! but he paused upon the 
brink ! Sir, he should have perished on the brink, ere he 
had crossed it ! Why did he pause ? Why does a man's 
heart palpitate when he is on the point of committing an aw- 
ful deed ? Why does the very murderer, his victim sleeping 
before him, and his glaring eye taking the measure of the 
blow, strike wide of the mortal part ? Because of conscience ! 
'T was that made Caesar pause upon the brink of the Rubi= 



CHARACTER OF JULIUS OESAR. 59 

con. Compassion ! What compassion ? The compassion of 
an assassin, that feels a momentary shudder as his weapon 
begins to cut ! Caesar paused upon the brink of the Kubicon ! 
What was the Kubicon ? — The boundary of Caesar's province. 
From what did it separate his province ? — From his country. 
Was that country a desert ? — No : it was cultivated and fer- 
tile ; rich and populous. Its sons were men of genius, 
spirit, and generosity. Its daughters were lovely, suscepti- 
ble, and chaste. Friendship was its inhabitant. Love was 
its inhabitant. Domestic affection was its inhabitant ! Lib- 
erty was its inhabitant ! — All bounded by the stream of the 
Kubicon ! What was Caesar, that stood upon the brink of 
that stream ? — A traitor, bringing war and pestilence into the 
heart of that country ! No wonder that he paused ! No 
wonder if, his imagination wrought upon by his conscience, 
he had beheld blood, instead of water ; and heard groans, in- 
stead of murmurs! No wonder, if some gorgon^ horror had 
turned him into stone upon the spot ! But, no ! he cried, 
i( The die is cast/" He plunged! he crossed! and Rome 
was free no more ! 

Caesar's clemency also must go for nothing. Clemency ! 
To attribute clemency to a man, is to imply that he has a 
right to be severe — a right to punish. Caesar had no right 
to punish. His clemency ! It was the clemency of an out- 
law — a pirate — a robber, who strips his prey, but then ab- 
stains from slaying him ! You were told also that he paid 
the most scrupulous respect to the laws. He paid the most 
scrupulous respect to the laws ! Sir, he set his foot upon 



60 THE YOUNG DEBATER. 

them, and in that prostrate condition, mocked them with 
respect ! 

Mr. President, — I confidently anticipate the triumph of 
our cause. 

(No. 30 may follow, and close.) 



TwentymSeventh Debater. (Affirmative.) 

Mr. President, — I have listened with pleasure to the im- 
passioned and eloquent speech of the last speaker, but I have 
listened in vain for a single argument to prove the negative 
of this question. It was evident that the gentleman endeav- 
ored to carry his point by the power of his oratory ; but let 
him remember that rhetorical display is net argument. I 
trust, Sir, that when the momentary effect of his eloquence 
shall have subsided, and we can look at facts calmly, and 
judge discriminately, we shall not fail to arrive at a just 
decision. 

We are not arguing whether all of Caesar's acts were justi- 
fiable or not. We are not discussing the question of his 
benevolent disposition — his clemency — or his respect for 
the laws ; but, was he a great man ? And here, Sir, allow 
me to say, that I disagree with my honorable colleague, who 
desired a revision of the question, upon the ground that it 
seemed to him vague and indefinite. To me, Sir, it is a 
plain question, and needs only to be viewed in the light of 



CHARACTER OF JULIUS CAESAR. 61 

history, and decided according to the dictates of an enlight- 
ened judgment. Let us, then, review some facts, as found 
recorded upon the page of history. 

And first : I read, that from his earliest hoyhood, Caesar 
discovered extraordinary talents. He had a penetrating in- 
tellect, a remarkably strong memory, and a lively imagina- 
tion ; was indefatigable in business ; and able, as we are told 
by Pliny, "to read, write, hear, and dictate, at the same 
time, from four to seven different letters ! " It is the recorded 
opinion of eminent historians, that, in his intellectual capacity, 
he deserves the highest rank among the men of his age. One 
writer says, that "the singular force and grandeur of his 
character can never be overlooked. His sharp insight, his 
sagacious, comprehensive, and practical views, his boldness of 
conception, his indomitable perseverance, his unswerving de- 
cision, and his power over armies, popular assemblies, and 
men of genius, rank, and fame, prove him to have belonged to 
the highest order of men of great capacity ; and it is impossi- 
ble to survey his actions, without a feeling approaching to the 
awful ! " Neither was he wanting in the virtues which the 
Romans admired ; and which, indeed, all mankind admire. 
He was sober ; he was generous. While distinguished by the 
valor of a soldier, and the impetuosity of a conqueror, he was 
not cruel. He declared, that " he took more pleasure in acts 
of clemency, than in those exciting scenes, through which he 
was hurried by the stern necessity of war." 

These, Mr. President, are the declarations of various his- 
torical writers, respecting the character of Cassar. And, in 



62 THE YOUNG DEBATER. 

opposition to all this, shall we stand here, Sir, and deny that 
he was a great man? Shall we refuse that title to him, who 
was the victor in five hundred battles, never losing one ; and 
who was the conqueror of a thousand cities ? Shall we deny 
that quality to him who was the means of introducing knowl- 
edge and civilization among all the nations that surrounded 
Rome — Gaul, Spain, Africa, Asia, and even Britain ? For, 
Sir, we are informed that Caesar, in his character of conqueror, 
first carried the language, laws, and arts of Rome, to the 
country of our ancestors, then in a savage state. How, then, 
I ask, can gentlemen of intelligence and candor argue here, 
that no good has resulted to the world from the military ex- 
ploits of Caesar? and how can they declare, in seriousness and 
sincerity, that such a benefactor to his race was not a great 
man? 

Twenty-Eighth Debater. (Affirmative.) 

I ask your permission, Mr. President, to follow the last 
speaker upon the same side of the question. Was Caesar a 
great man ? — that is, was he great in his intellectual charac- 
ter ? — had he a mind of great capacity ? — were his mental 
endowments and acquisitions of a high order ? This, Sir, is 
what I understand to be the meaning of the question ; and, with 
my worthy colleague, I shall consult the historian for an an- 
swer. If he cannot be relied on, where shall we go ? 

We do not claim for Caesar absolute perfection — that were 
an absurdity ; for he was human, But, Sir. we do claim that 



CHARACTER OF JULIUS OESAR. 63 

he was a great man, according to the standard by which we 
are to judge of humanity. And it is my opinion that, if 
profane history, from the earliest times down to the pres- 
ent, furnishes us with an account of any characters that can 
justly be called great, Caesar must certaialy belong to that 
class. Was King Alfred a great man ? — or Charlemagne ? or 
Alexander ? or Bonaparte ? or Washington ? So was Ccesar 
a great man. 

Of Caesar's character, as a military chieftain, I shall have 
little to say ; as it has already been sufficiently dwelt upon 
here, and his surpassing greatness in that capacity is con- 
ceded by all. The very celerity of his movements often gained 
him the victory, without a battle, or the loss of a single life ! 
By his act in crossing the Rubicon, which furnishes so fruit- 
ful a theme for oratorical display here, he became master of 
Italy, without striking a blow ! His memorable words, " 1 
came, I saw, I conquered," well express his character as a 
general, and his preeminence in that capacity cannot be de- 
nied or doubted. And, Sir, I shall have the boldness to as- 
sert, that the sacrifice of human life under him as a general, 
which his opponents descant upon so eloquently here, was tri= 
fling, when we consider the vast extent of his operations, and 
the splendor of his achievements ! 

But Caesar, Sir, was a great character in other respects . 
Who but an accomplished orator could have held such control 
over the popular will ? As an author, historians assign him a 
high rank. His style is remarkable for simplicity, clearness, 
ease, and perfect equality of expression ; as a proof of which I 



64 THE YOUNG DEBATER. 

need only mention his Commentaries. " He was a patron of art 
and science. Previous to bis time, the Romans had done little 
for geography, as a science. He caused to be made a geomet- 
rical survey and measurement of the whole Roman empire ; 
and the information he received from an astronomer in Egypt, 
enabled him to alter and amend the Roman calendar. The 
computation he adopted has been since maintained, with little 
alteration, except that of the style introduced by Pope Gre- 
gory." When we consider the imperfections of all mathemat- 
ical instruments at that time, and the total want of telescopes, 
we cannot but view with admiration, not unmixed with aston- 
ishment, that comprehensive genius, which, in the infancy of 
science, could surmount such difficulties, and arrange a sys- 
tem that experienced but a trifling derangement in the course 
of sixteen centuries. As a civil ruler, he passed many useful 
laws for the government of his country ; and we are told that 
he invited the learned men of foreign countries to Rome. 
Bacon says, " he was no doubt of a very noble mind." 

Thus, Sir, in whatever character we view Caesar, — whether 
as a soldier, a civil magistrate, or a scholar, — we find him 
equally great in each; if great in each, then great in all; and, 
if great in all, he must have been eminently and emphatically 
great. 

Twenty-Ninth Debater. {Negative.) 

Mr. President, — The last two speakers have given you 
their views respecting the character of Caesar, as gathered from 
the page of history; and I will endeavor, in a few words, to 



CHARACTER OF JULIUS CAESAR. 



65 



give you mine. They quote the individual opinions of various 
historical writers, and adopt them as their own. Of this I 
would not complain, Sir, had they quoted their authorities 
fairly and impartially. One part of a story is said to be good, 
until the other is told. They have presented to your view the 
bright side of the picture only, very carefully aud ingeniously 
concealing the other. I shall take the liberty, Sir, to extend 
their quotations far enough to tell you the other part of the 
story, and to hold up to your view the dark side of the picture. 
When a cause is tried in a <jourt of justice, the witnesses 
must be cross-questioned, in order that the whole truth may 
appear, and the jury be able to bring in a just verdict. Sir, 
the cause upon trial here is Cassar's character ; the witnesses 
are various historical writers; the jury, this audience; and 
yourself, the judge. As one of the counsel, I shall proceed, 
with your Honor's permission, to cross-examine the witnesses. 

I do not question the correctness of either of the gentle- 
men's quotations, so far as they go ; but I have said, I shall 
take the liberty to extend them. If they read that, " in his in- 
tellectual capacity, Caesar deserves high rank among the men 
of his age," I read further, and find it recorded, that "the 
whole range of history can hardly furnish a picture of greater 
deformity ! Besides being excessively addicted to gross sensu- 
alities, never did any man occasion so large an amount of hu- 
man misery, with so'little provocation. The slaughter which 
he occasioned cannot be computed ; nor can we estimate the 
degree of suffering caused by his spoliations and confiscations, 
and by the various acts of oppression which he tolerated in 



66 THE YOUNG DEBATER. 

his followers. " I read, also, that " the selfishness of his ambi- 
tion, his recklessness of human life, his contempt of national 
liberty, his rapacity, his arrogance, his sensual and luxurious 
prodigality, cannot but awaken a feeling of sorrowful and right- 
eous indignation ! One ruling aim governed his whole life, — 
that he might become the master of the world, Rome and all 
mankind must be made to feel his power. " If he, as a civil 
ruler, "passed many useful laws, " he also passed many that 
were arbitrary and tyrannical — laws to secure his own advance- 
ment, and gratify his ambitious desires. If he " invited the 
learned men of foreign countries to Rome, " he also drove from 
Rome some of the most learned men of the nation. If Bacon 
says, " he was no doubt of a very noble mind, " he also says 
that " he aimed more at his own advancement, than at any mer- 
its for the common good. " 

A gentleman here tells us that Caesar, on his return from 
Spain, paid his debts; and asks, " Was not that an honorabl e 
act ? " I have yet to learn, Sir, that a man is entitled to any 
special honor for paying his debts, even when he obtains the 
means for paying them in an honest manner. But, how did 
Caesar obtain the means for paying his ? By plundering his 
neighbors ! I ask, was that an honorable act ? 

It cannot be denied, Mr. President, that Caesar was sadly 
wanting in some of the virtues which combine to form a truly 
great character. Would a man, possessing that dignity which 
belongs to true greatness, have received, with such delight as 
Caesar did, the gross and impious flatteries of a servile Senate — 
such as wearing, at all times, a crown of laurel upon his head, 



CHARACTER OF JULIUS OESAR. 67 

having his statues carried along with the gods, in the prooes- 
sions of the circus, and temples and altars dedicated to him, 
and priests appointed to superintend his worship ? These things, 
we are told, he received with vanity, and took pleasure in every 
token of homage, contemplating, with childish delight, the 
gaudy honors with which he was invested. Such acts as these 
declare hut too plainly the ambitious feelings of the man, and 
his hankering after the bauble of royalty. It was such acts as 
these, which gave rise to the conspiracy that resulted in his as- 
sassination — an act which can by no means be justified, but a 
fate that might have been apprehended, in such a state of so- 
ciety, by any man whose ambition should lead him to usurp, 
as Caesar did, the supreme power of the government : that he 
was a usurper, none will pretend to deny. 

Thus, Sir, taking an impartial view of Caesar's character, 
we do not find in it that harmonious combination of attributes, 
which we must look for in true greatness. Excess in the worse, 
and deficiency in the better elements, render his character a 
deformity sad to contemplate. And yet, Sir, such a character 
has been compared, by a gentleman here, with that of Wash- 
ington ! — our own Washington, who was " first in war, first in 
peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen." Oh, base in- 
gratitude ! Oh, monstrous impiety ! Mr. President, I blush 
for humanity, to hear such opinions avowed in this place ! 

I ask pardon, Sir, for trespassing so long upon your patience. 
I felt that I could not well say less, and do justice to my views 
upon this question. 



68 THE YOUNG DEBATER. 

Thirtieth Debater. (Affirmative.) 

It is with much reluctance, Mr. President, that I present 
myself to your notice at this late hour. We have proved that 
your patience is abundant ; we cannot presume that it is inex- 
haustible. I shall exercise it for only a few moments. 

Were our cause to be judged by the approbation which our 
opponents have received, it would appear to be lost; but that is 
far from being the case, Mr. President. The approbation they 
receive is unaccompanied by conviction ; it is a tribute, and a 
merited one, to their eloquence, and has not any reference to 
the justice of th* 'part they take. Our cause is not lost — is not 
in danger — does not apprehend danger. We are strong as 
ever, as able for the contest, and as confident of victory. We 
fight under the banners of Caesar ; and Csesar never met an 
open enemy without subduing him. We grant that Caesar 
was a usurper ; but we insist that the circumstances of the 
times justified his usurpation. We insist that he became a 
usurper for the good of his country ; for the salvation of the 
republic; for the preservation of its very existence! What 
must have been the state of Roman liberty, when such men as 
Marius and Sylla could become usurpers ? — Monsters, against 
whose domination nature and religion exclaimed ! I think, 
Sir, that the times in which Caesar lived called for and sanc- 
tioned his usurpation. I think his object was to extinguish the 
jealousies of party, to put a stop to the miseries that resulted 
from them, and to unite his countrymen. I think the divided 



CHARACTER OF JULIUS CjESAR. 69 

state of the Roman people exposed them to the danger of a 
foreign yoke, from which they could be preserved only by re- 
ceiving a domestic one. I think that Caesar was a great man ; 
and I conclude my trial of your patience, with the reply made 
to Brutus by Statilius, who had once determined to die in Utica, 
with Cato ; and by Flavonius, an esteemed philosopher of those 
times. These men were sounded by Brutus, after he had en- 
tered into the conspiracy for murdering Cassar. The former 
said, "he would rather patiently suffer the oppressions of an 
arbitrary master, than the cruelties and disorders which gen- 
erally attend civil dissensions." The latter declared that, in 
his opinion, a " civil war was worse than the most unjust 
tyranny, " 






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